


Tides of War

by SynchronicityRose



Category: Unbroken (2014)
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Bonding, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Forbidden Love, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Titles, Imprisonment, M/M, Male Friendship, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Minor Character(s), Minor Injuries, Non-Chronological, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Other, POW Camps, Period Typical Attitudes, Ratings: R, Short, Slurs, Unrequited Love, War Drama, War violence, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-13 07:48:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5700646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SynchronicityRose/pseuds/SynchronicityRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louie Zamperini and Lucas Shaw have been friends for as long as either can remember. With Japan and America continuing to remain at odds the war plunges them into a series of horrific events. While imprisoned in a POW camp, the two have to rely on each other to keep their sanity and themselves alive all the while struggling with other emotions. </p><p> </p><p>Based off of the movie with the lovely Jack O'Connell as the face claim for Louie's character.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Began With A Glance

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: If you are uncomfortable with the topic of homosexual relationships or anything dark dealing with war please refrain from reading this story. 
> 
>  
> 
> Hello everyone! And...here we have another story of mine that was/is slightly uh 'awkward' to write at first. It's actually almost completed but thought I'd post the first chapter so you can get a gist of what it is about. Again there may be some things in here you might find offensive but remember: Both countries had negative view points about the other: I actually cringed writing certain chapters because of the language and such used. 
> 
> You have been warned. 
> 
> PS: I might change the title at some point ^^; Unsure at the current

The sun was hung low in the sky over Torrence, California one warm evening in September. Seven-year-old Lucas Shawl walked out onto the balcony just outside his bedroom with thoughts whirling around in his head watching a German air craft fly over the city. He could hear the low hum of its engine as several citizens stepped out to gaze at it in awe having not seen the likes of it before.

He sighs, resting his chin in the palm of his hand gazing out first at the mystifying air craft then at nothing. Watching the people below go about their everyday lives.

One young man however seemed to break away from his family for a moment looking curiously up at the large mansion they just walked by. Lucas watches him with the same bit of curiosity. The two shared a moment merely just looking at one another. Blue eyes focused on light green eyes.

The only time they had broken their gaze had been when an older boy-one Lucas presumed to be the younger boy’s brother asked him what he was so focused on.

The boy shrugged one shoulder, saying that it was nothing when in actuality it had been something. Or more to be someone. Lucas had wanted to find the other rude to be staring but found a light grin crossing his face before walking back inside his bedroom to rest for the evening.

They had not once left each other’s minds throughout the whole day.

**~xxxx~**

When Lucas first met Louie Zamperini the two boys had not gotten along at all. Louie would constantly insult Lucas at every chance he got and Lucas? He would just take it. Wouldn’t even fight back if Louie hit him or called him a name and that irritated the young Italian boy above anything else.

Everything about Lucas just annoyed Louie to no end and he didn’t even have a clue as to why. At least, not at the time.

But now things were different.

The day Lucas finally stood up to Louie was March 31’st, one o clock pm. Zamperini had his little ‘gang’ of thugs he gathered surrounding Lucas one evening after he got out of school. Lucas cursed his friend out when the other boy took off running the second he spotted Louie making his way towards them.

“Nice to see you again punching bag,” Louie called out once he got close to the other wealthier boy. “You got my money today don’t you?”

_Oh I’ve got your money. And I know exactly where you can just shove it you dumb prick_

Lucas had wanted to say but didn’t dare to out loud of course. Pursing his lips in a thin line he watched as Louie snatched the money wad from his hand counting it out. His blue eyes glaring sharp at the other in front of him.

“You’re short! I said specifically fifteen bucks.” Louie hollered. Lucas tried to keep his cool.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I have right now. Money’s been tight since the Depression…would’ve thought someone like you would understand.”

He covered his mouth quickly soon after. Green eyes widening in pure shock at what he realized he just said as Louie all but gapped at him. _Shit, shit, shit, shit! Why did I say that? God WHY did I say that?!_

“What’d you mean by ‘someone like me would understand’ Shawl?” Louie finally spits out, shoving the other boy hard in the chest making intimidating steps towards him. Lucas takes a few steps back. “Huh? Think you’re better than me?”

“No…No that’s not what I meant. I-I mean…We’re all struggling it’s just some families are poorer than others that’s all.” _Again. Really?!_ Lucas cursed himself again as he seemed to anger Louie even more.

That was when it happened.

Louie all but tackles Lucas to the ground just whaling on the other boy. Lucas managed to get him fairly good in the groin-one self defense move he knew at the least, giving him sometime to recover before Louie jumps him again.

“Get off me you dumb dago!”

“YOU get off of ME mutt!”

Louie retorted back. It really was a sight to see for some passerby’s in the area. Two young men engaged in fierce ‘combat’ with the other-Lucas somehow getting Louie in a chokehold at some point resulting in a good sized black eye after being elbowed by the younger male.

The ‘fight’ lasted for several moments until the familiar sound of a police whistle sounded. He yanks the two panting boys off of one another, not at all surprised of Louie but more shocked at Lucas dragging them by the ears to their respective families.

On the next day Louie had mumbled a somewhat sincere apology towards Lucas strongly recommended by his mother Louise to do so.

“It’s fine.” Lucas simply replies back rubbing the back of his head. “I should be saying sorry for calling you…well you know.” He cringes lightly at the Italian slur he just uttered yesterday.

“Not the first time I’ve been called a dago.” Louie says with a shrug. “…You weren’t bad by the way. Fighting me off I mean. Although that kick to the groin wasn’t really fair.”

A smirk tugged its way across the Zamperini boy’s face that Lucas can’t help to return one of his own. “Hey I grew up with five sisters. Where’d you think I learned it?”

“Holy shit FIVE girls?” Louie’s eyes actually widened. “I can’t stand two sisters can’t imagine having five of ‘em.”

“It’s not so bad…well not when they’re all menstruating at the same time.” Lucas shuddered-they were older than he was.

“Wait what’s…menstruation again?”

A weary sigh escaped Lucas’s lips figuring Louie was a typical boy who didn’t know much about what women’s lives could be like. “Sit down Lou. We’re going to have a long discussion about women.”

Lucas tried not to laugh at the mortified expression on Louie’s face as he proceeded to tell the other how a woman’s body worked and how very different it was from a male’s anatomy system.


	2. Tragedy

Lucas Shaw, great-great-great grandson of Robert Gould Shaw-famous for leading an all-African American regiment in the Civil War had sweat dripping down his face as he and Louie raced through the streets of Torrance with a furious police officer, red in the face shouting after for them to halt.

“Zamperini! Shaw! Stop at once!” The man hollered.

“You and your bright ideas Louie!” Lucas snapped as they pushed through a couple of women whom gasped in appalment-Lucas stopped for a moment to apologize only to be dragged by the wrist away by his friend.

“Hey you were the one supposed to keep look out!” Louie snapped back. “Now we’ve got this bastard on our tail!”

It really was Louie’s fault though in Lucas’s opinion. He was the one stealing from the bakery not Lucas. The boys ran until they reached a fence, Louie squeezing through the small space first with Lucas following close behind.

Not long after do they finally manage to rest, Lucas dropping almost instantly down beside Louie as the younger boy gets into his ‘secret stash’ ignoring his friend shaking his head in disappointment.

“You have any idea what kind of trouble we’ll be in when we get home?” Lucas muttered, pulling his legs up to his chin as Louie takes a swig of alcohol. The bottle was cleverly painted in white to make it seem like he was merely drinking milk.

“You’re too much of a pussy you know that?” Louie rolled his eyes, taking a drag of a cigarette after. “Been hanging around Pete too much.”

Lucas snorted taking a bite out of a candy bar-another of the many foods Louie had stolen. “You know your brother’s actually pretty cool the more you spend time with him.”

Louie scoffed taking another swig of his drink. He normally would never bring up Pete in a negative light unless he was drunk, such as how he was now. Lucas could tell the way his speech was beginning to slur and he was swaying just a bit.

“What’re you doing out here wop?”

_Oh no…_

Lucas purses his lips in a thin line when four older looking boys show up where they are seated. The leader was one whom he recognized instantly, having been one of his many tormentors in the past. Louie appeared to be their favorite ‘target’ now because he was Italian. They always tried calling him horrible slurs just to get a rise.

And it worked.

“Ron come on,” Lucas tried to reason with his old tormentor. Stepping in front of Louie who tried getting past him. “Just let ‘im go. Louie didn’t do anything to you did he?”

“I knew you were low Shaw,” Ron sneered, smirking coyly at the boy behind him. “But I didn’t think you could sink any lower hanging around a dumb dago.”

That word. That one slur was all it took for Louie to snap finding himself in a brawl with the other boys. Lucas pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing taking deep breaths until a sharp piercing whistle sounded snapping them back into reality.

“Act your age!” The officer barked, yanking Louie away from the other boys as they scurried off.

It wasn’t much longer before both found themselves dragged back to the Zamperini’s home where Mrs. Zamperini and Pete could be seen waiting outside nervously, the woman’s heart sinking as she sees her Louie and his friend dragged up by an officer.

“Sorry Louise. Caught him fighting again and…drinking.”

“Louie just go inside for a while,” Mrs. Zamperini said in a strained voice. “Your father will handle this. Lucas might I have a moment with you?”

Lucas allowed the woman to place a soft hand on his left shoulder staring quizzically at the woman.

“Now…I’m afraid you’re in for a nasty shock my dear-but your father…your mother called. He has…he has committed suicide. Oh I’m so sorry dear. Your mother, she was in such hysterics when she called…you and Bella will be staying with us…”

Lucas could see her lips moving but it was as if he had gone deaf for a while. Dead. His father…was dead.

The pain wasn’t what he expected. In fact there seemed to be none at all. He felt numb as Mrs. Zamperini carefully leads him inside the house talking to him gently that everything was going to work out somehow but her words were deaf to his ears.

After Louie’s father had scolded him he, Pete, Sylvia, Virginia and his sister Bella went to comfort the other boy. Mr. and Mrs. Zamperini got to work making him feel at home.

Pete was the first to notice Lucas’s shock wrapping his arms around his friend holding him close. Tears slid down Lucas’s face but they were a trivial part to him. Nothing else mattered. Something much bigger than he and Louie getting in that stupid fight had happened.

Pete steps back to give Bella room to hug her brother, standing awkwardly to the side with Louie. They felt as though Lucas, Bella, Sylvia and Virginia were in a world of their own. One they could not enter.

**~****~**

Late that night while he slept and cried softly in his sleep he felt someone lay beside him. An arm wrap around his waist. “Thanks Bella…” He whispered. Believing it to be his younger sister.

**Several years later**

On a sweltering August 19th, mid-afternoon the Zamperini’s could be seen gathered on their front porch along with Lucas-now a young man of twenty four years and Louie-a young man aged twenty five for a final photograph.

Poor Louise Zamperini and Bella Shaw were on the verge of tears. Bella rode with Mr. Zamperini to a platform where many other parents were crying, clinging to their sons one last time before they embarked.

“You swear you’ll write to me won’t you?” Bella whispered to her brother wiping furiously at her eyes. “At least once every day?”

“I’ll try to Bells,” Lucas choked out trying to keep himself together looking over at Louie and his father who weren’t doing any better. He hated good-byes. Never was good with them since his mother and what happened to his father. “Be good alright? Listen to everything the Zamperini’s say.”

“I’m sixteen Luke. Not seven.”

 "By the way. I thank you for laying with me that night with, well what happened to dad and all..."

 Bella blinked and Louie stiffened just a bit. "Lay with you? I was in Sylvia's room Luke: Maybe you just thought someone laid beside you."

 Lucas opened his mouth, puzzled greatly only to be dragged onto the train quickly by Louie, taking his luggage not knowing when they will be able to see their families again.

“…You sure we made the right decision to do this?” Lucas questioned.

Louie stares back at him. Slipping his hand into his giving it a squeeze. His infamous grin that earned him the nick name ‘Little Devil of Torrance’ plastered on his face. “Yeah. I think we have.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suicide is typically a touchy subject for me to include in a story but an idea began to form of a way that made better sense of the death of Lucas's father: And it was greatly inspired from what happened with Billy Zaine's character in 'Titanic' during the Great Depression *I think anyway don't hold me to it, it's been so long since I've watched it*


	3. Explosion

**April 1943-Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean**

It was a thick and heavy rain.

Lucas Shaw, now aged twenty- five years and a gunner could hardly see anything. Not even the ocean floor just below them. Sharks swimming with hunger in the depths just waiting for more humans to devour.

Hearing nothing but the low humming of the B-24 Liberator bomber and the soft chatter of the crew around. Arms resting on his missile launcher looking with a lazy expression tapping his foot to no music.

“So Lucas,” Mac McNamara’s voice sounded from behind causing the dark haired male to look over his shoulder. A cheeky grin could be seen on the other tail gunner’s face. “Your sister. Is she single at all?”

“Yeah she’s single…and she’s only eighteen.”

“C’mon eighteen’s an adult right?” Mac tries again in a playful manner as Lucas can’t help but grin followed by a roll of his eyes. “Besides imagine having me as a brother in-law.”

“You’re a good guy Mac-but not the brightest bulb around to be Bella’s type.”

Mac’s face flushed hearing Louie, Phil, Cuppernell and some of their other crew snickering at Lucas’s remark whereas he all but sticks his tongue in a childish manner out at his comrade and new friend.

“Damn,” Lucas mused out loud-almost cringing at another lightning bolt streaking across the skies. “This is one hell of a storm.”

“Not scared of a little rain are ya Lukie?” Louie asked from his spot. His tone laced with a tease that he knew always got under his friend’s skin.

Lucas scoffed, brushing a stray strand from his forehead. “Scared? Me? Ha! Don’t make me laugh Lou: I’m not afraid of-.”

Another thundering crack echoes all around causing the poor guy to nearly bump his head on the low ceiling earning a bout of snickers and laughter from Phil and the others.

Lucas all but flips them off.

Louie had to admit he felt bad laughing at Lucas’s fear…but come on you’ve gotta admit: Seeing a grown man jump like a cat about ready to be dumped in a tub of water is a pretty funny scene.

For the next few hours until they spotted the Japanese occupied island of Nauru: the gunners became horrendously bored so it was Lucas’s idea to shoot at a few whales swimming about in the ocean only to have Phil call out to them to knock it off.

“Fun sucker.” Lucas muttered smirking when the pilot flipped him the bird.

From the distance that was when he could see it. A lone isle out in the middle of the ocean. “We are here.” Phil muttered out loud.

Lucas glanced over to see that Louie was already using the Norden bombsight. A device connected to the autopilot of the plane. “Alright,” the Italian man spoke preparing for the bombing. “Get your camera’s ready boys. I’m gonna light it up like Christmas.”

“Sure you don’t want me to take over?” Lucas couldn’t help himself. “My coordination far surpasses yours Zamperini.”

“Can’t you have a little faith in me just this once Luke?” Louie replied in a fake exasperated tone.

“My faith in you was lost since you almost got us arrested when we were eight years old.”

“That was ONE time. And if you had kept watch like I told you-.”

“Hey cut the lover spat boys,” Cuppernell called from the front. Smirking when he could practically feel their eyes burn in the back of his skull. A dozen or so Zero’s were heading right for their formation. “We’ve got company.”

Adrenaline was already beginning to pump through their veins as Lucas slides his goggles over his head. Louie locking on his target.

And that was where it had begun.

Zero’s began swarming the American fighter planes. Lucas and Mac fired away-enjoying it perhaps a little more than they should. Now typically Lucas didn’t want anything to do with fighting or any type of combat but that all changed when he joined the Air Force. The battle in the sky seemed to go on forever, Lucas watching in horror as one of their planes is shot down plummeting into the Pacific.

Lucas bared his teeth. Enraged as he continues firing bullet after bullet at another enemy plane. More so when their friend Harry was shot.

Louie was quick to aid him. After making sure Harry would be fine where he was, he went back up to the cockpit area giving Lucas an acknowledging nod. Smoke. They began smelling smoke. “Lucas what’s going on?!” Cuppernell calls from the cockpit.

Briefly looking out his window, a curse escaped his lips seeing that _Superman_ had been badly damaged calling back. Struck by a lightning bolt and a Zero. “We’ve been hit! The hydraulics are done!”

“Everyone brace for impact!” Phil shouted.

Louie, Lucas and Mac did just that. Grabbing onto anything they could holding onto their injured comrades as Lucas can feel the plane begin to dip. All the men could do was shut their eyes and pray to whatever they believed in.

**~////~**

None of the men knew how Phil had done so but he managed to land the plane on a runway. Lucas accidentally bumps into Louie upon impact as the sound of a tire bursting. His chest heaves up and down when it finally stops.

“….Were we just saved by a flat tire?” Lucas can’t help but ask with a grin stretching across his face.

“Yeah. We were.”

They’re all more than relieved. Laughing and giving Phil claps on the back for a job well done landing them all to safety in the end. Lucas hopped off the plane through its opening, stretching his arms above his head.

Although they had nearly could have been through a tragedy it was nice to see the crew talking animatedly among one another-well minus Pilsbury and the other man that was injured.

“Hey Lucas: Mind joining me at the infirmary? The doctors/nurses could really use extra hands on deck.”

He lifted his head up seeing the other tail gunner jogging towards him, skidding to a halt and nodding towards the infirmary compound.

“Sure thing. Louie I’ll be back in a bit alright?” Lucas said, patting his friend on the shoulder who merely nodded in response.

“Yeah sure. See ya tonight.”

**~XXXX~**

Lucas’s heart thumped in his chest as he, Louie, Phil and Mac jam their feet into their boots, bolted from their tents and stopped. Many people were shouting and others were screaming. Just moments ago a man came in hollering about an air raid.

There were no bomb shelters in sight.

He was frozen for a moment as the sirens wailed continuously. Danger echoed all around and yet he felt strangely content until someone shook him violently to snap out of the state he was in.

“Lucas come on!” Mac hollered.

Airplanes above were dropping bombs left and right on the island. Some natives fled into a white church much to Lucas’s horror. _They’re just sitting ducks if they run inside_ he thought with panic. As he and Mac ran for their lives, fear swelled as he was unable to find Louie nor Phil in the chaos.

He spotted a lone child in the middle of everything, whailing for his mother or father.

“Mac wait!” Lucas shouted. “I have to help him!”

He turned and ran straight into the field, Mac sprinting after scooping the boy whom was paralyzed with fear now. Cradling him in his arms. Another powerful explosion nearly sent the men falling to their knees. Lucas protecting the boy’s head before they hit the ground, shushing him gently after the trio dived underneath a hut.

Mac was breathing heavily beside. Giving Lucas a look of disbelief.

“You’re a real nutcase….You know that Shaw?”

Lucas lifted his head hearing Mac chastise him. A little grin crossing his face. “But you still love me. This is what you get for being engaged to a Shaw. I wasn’t raised to be a sissy.”

Mac all but chuckles at that statement, pressing a kiss to the left of his temple keeping a protective arm around the boy and his future husband. They were honestly surprised they had not gone deaf in either or both ears at this point. Or the fact the island itself managed to not have exploded.

“You think Lou’s alright?” Lucas questioned loudly over the bombs referring to Louie.

“I’m sure he and Phil are fine.” Mac responded. “Let’s just stay as low as possible until it’s over.”

Mac didn’t have to tell him twice. Lucas knew that if they stepped out of their spot they’d be blown to bits.

Then. All was quiet.

Lucas and Mac look at one another, the boy whimpering still against Lucas’s chest crying silently out for his mother. “Should we?” Mac whispered.

Lucas nodded.

As the trio slowly crawl out from underneath the hut, Lucas’s hand intertwined tight with Mac’s they were in utter shock at what they were witnessing. Palm trees were blown apart. Huts were demolished. Lucas had even stumbled upon a body of a young native of the island…only the poor soul was beyond recognition.

A feminine voice soon cried out her son’s name and the boy all but instantly lifts his head out. “Mama!” He cried back, arms out stretched as she scoops him up in her arms kissing his face all over bowing soon after to Lucas and Mac.

“You saved him didn’t you?” She choked out. “You men saved my boy…”

“They did mama,” the boy assured her. “They really did. It’s thanks to them I’m alive to see you and papa again.”

“It was no-.” Lucas began to say only to be cut off as the mother pulls him into a nearly bone crushing hug kissing both sides of his face earning a chuckle from Mac when she does the same to him. “Trouble.” Lucas finished with a small laugh.

After she had left to go back to her husband, Lucas’s worries for Phil and Louie were cut the minute he sees his friends walking out onto the field. Stunned and wide-eyed. In a daze until Lucas hollers out their names.

“I knew you’d make it out Zamp.” Lucas spoke in a soft tone with a still weary grin.

“Same to you Mutt.” Louie muttered, using his old childhood nickname.

**~*****~**

“Those fucking Japs are gonna be sorry they messed with us.”

Lucas sighed heavily as a drunken pilot began raving on about the Japanese in a small bar the group held themselves up at. All of them were greatly disturbed still by the massive attack on the island. Some, like Louie, resorted to drinking. Lucas not really being a drinker at all did find the beer he had some source of comfort. Mac stayed behind back in their cabin.

“You know what I say?” The drunken pilot began once more, downing his fifth glass of some kind of alcoholic drink Lucas wasn’t sure of. Looked like horse piss to him. “I say….we bomb the fuck outta those dirty sons of bitches. That’s what I say.”

Phil and Lucas glanced wearily at one another. Louie all but stared into his drink before downing it again.

“And you honestly think that’ll solve everything?” Lucas dared to speak up ignoring the glare the pilot and his friends tossed his way. “Be realistic. You don’t think their lives are ruined to by this damn war?”

The pilot scoffed. Ordering the bar tender to bring him another drink. “What? You sympathizing with the Japs?” He sneered. “You’re the one that’s not being realistic kiddo. They’re animals. And what do you do when you come across a wild beast?” He raised his index finger like a gun, pointing it straight at the floor acting like he was firing. “You shoot ‘em. And shoot ‘em good and dead.”

A chair could be heard scraping against the floor. Lucas did not understand what had come over him, but he now found himself staring straight up at the older man’s face. “Luke cool it.” Phil hissed in his ear yet Lucas shrugs him off.

“Tell me,” Lucas began in a hiss. His pupils almost dilating into slits. “That you did NOT just compare a whole, entire group of people…to wild animals…based on the actions of those who did the wrong.”

The pilot merely smirked cockily at Lucas. Dismissing him as a ‘child’ chuckling in a mocking tone. “You’ve got balls talking to a commanding officer like this….or at least I think you do. Being a fag and what not.”

Everything happened quick. Lucas made a lunge for the man, his hands aimed to wrap around his neck only to have Louie and Cuppernell hold the struggling younger male back. The pilot all but cackled cruelly.

“I heard you by the way,” the man continued egging an enraged Lucas on. A sick, twisted grin plastered on his face. “Yeah…these walls aren’t thick ya know. Heard you and McNamara…..did it feel good? You know you can get a disease that way.”

“Shut up…” Lucas choked out. Tears prickling in his eyes. Louie looked no better yet he wasn’t crying. His eyes held that of rage towards the pilot. He just wouldn’t stop with the remarks.

“Didn’t sound like Mac was pleasing ya all that well,” the pilot drawled to a now shaking Lucas. “Why don’t you swing by later? I’ll show you how a real man-.”

A loud CRACK was then heard.

The pilot fell on his back crashing onto a table. Blood seeping out of his broken nose. The raised fist belonging to Louie. His nostrils flared like a raging bull’s clenching and un-clenching his hand as the pilot hollered in pain with others rushing to him.

“If you EVER. Talk about Lucas like that again,” Louie seethed. “I’ll see to it you’ll be court martialed for sexual harassment of another. Do you understand?”

The pilot merely groans in response. Phil ran a frustrated hand down his face scowling down at the crude man while Louie led his friend out of the bar.

_What a mess…_

**~*****~**

Louie didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know…what to feel. His heart began to hurt yet he thought it was due to the fact Lucas lied to him about not liking other men. All those years he’d poke fun at gay men…and Lucas turned out to be one of them. He remembers going to a movie one night and cracking jokes about a homosexual man that was wrongly portrayed.

They’d just gotten into an ‘argument’ of sorts. Louie said some fowl things that he knew he’d regret in the morning yet he couldn’t control his words this time.

The jokes always made Lucas uncomfortable and he’d tell Louie to knock it off.

His fists clenched tight in his hands as stormed back to his cottage. Trying not to slam the door when he entered as not to wake the still sound asleep Phil. Tears pooled in the back of Louie’s eyes furiously wiping them away.

Who was he really angry at though? Lucas for not telling him he was with Mac…or himself?

For the remainder of the night the Olympic athlete could not sleep.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that the whole Mac asking about Bella was more of a ploy: Considering the time era Lucas wanted to keep their relationship as much underwraps as possible only letting few people he was close to know. And I hope Louie wasn't too far out of character here, I could just sort of picture him as a 'youth' being like that. 
> 
> Some scenes such as the island being bombed were heavily inspired from scenes in the book as well. 
> 
> Oh! And just to make sure it was the pacific ocean right? Where the Green Hornet crashed? I tend to get the Atlantic and Pacific mixed up on occasion 
> 
> Also here's my updating schedule for this and other works 
> 
> Tides of War: Monday and Sunday 
> 
> Synchronicity: Monday 
> 
> Tale of Two Keyblades: Thursday 
> 
> KH: Chains of Fate: Saturday
> 
> Immortals: Monday 
> 
> One Shot Collection: No set date for it. It's updated whenever I think of a one shot 
> 
> so there ya go <3 happy Sunday! And keep safe if you're in the path of that awful blizzard in the East. Horrible winter indeed


	4. Crash

He didn’t know what to do.

Louie, for the first time in his life did not know what to do and he was panicking. The image of Mac and Lucas was still fresh in his mind, so after shaking Cuppernell awake early the next morning he talked the older male into driving alongside him in a jeep while Louie ran beside.

The sun was beginning to rise over the island by the time they made it down the path.

Damn did he have a headache to that he needed to rid of. Running always calmed him down, thankful towards Pete for getting him into it. With sweat falling from his face of the sun’s warmth a wide smile stretches across his face passing by his companions cheering him on. Although when he sees Lucas and Mac he can’t help but look away.

“4:12,” Cuppernell says with a laugh after they finally stop. Watching as Louie does a little giddy dance. “Geez. Hope you aren’t that fast in the sac.”

Louie all but laughed at his remark. Yet his mind drifted once again to Lucas and Mac…envisioning Lucas pressed against that tree. Head thrown back moaning out Mac’s name in ecstasy into the night. A terrible shudder coursed his body. Cuppernell arches a brow, lightning another cigar.

“You alright Zamp? Something on yer mind?”

A fresh breeze ruffles Louie’s hair. Unsure as to how to respond.

“Uh…I’m-.”

The sound of another jeep could be heard before Louie responded. Phil, Mac and about four other men were inside it…minus Lucas. There hadn’t been enough room so he unfortunately had to run beside it.

“Heads up Lou: We’ve got…a mission.” The dark haired male panted out, shooting a glare at the snickering men. “Oh ha ha. Very funny. Next time we’re in combat I’m leaving all of y’all to fend for yourselves.”

“Tell ya what. I’ll let you spank me later to make up for it.” Mac jeered, tossing a red in the face and ears Lucas a wink as the others roared with laughter.

Phil explained that the plane was headed for Canton but didn’t make it. “Oh. And they’ve got us a new crew.”

Louie arched a brow. “Do we have a new plane?”

When Lucas smiled awkwardly at him did he hang his head in disappointment earning another bout of chuckles from the crew.

Louie hadn’t had a moment alone with Lucas since they first got there so he was more than relieved when the other agreed to go for a walk. Neither spoke for some time walking the sandy shores. Looking at Lucas…it felt different now. It made him sick. Remembering how Lucas kissed Mac. Mac tenderly caressing him…whispering sweet nothings.

“…So you and Mac huh?”

Lucas gave a low nod. A sheepish smile on his face. “Yeah. You know uh, that person I’d been writing letters to all those months ago? I-It was him all along.”

Months. On top of it all Lucas had been hiding this from him for months.

 _How could I be so stupid?_ Louie cursed himself inwardly. It’s not the fact he was upset at Lucas for liking another man oh no. He could never personally hate anyone for being who they were-the thing that made him most irritable was the fact Lucas hadn’t told him sooner.

“You know…You could’ve told me sooner,” Louie tried to begin in the calmest voice possible. “I mean, I’m your best friend aren’t I?”

Lucas stopped. Frowning thoughtfully. “Of course you are Lou. I just didn’t know how you’d, well, re act to it that’s all.”

Louie snorted in disbelief. Crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t mind the fact you like other men Luke. I’m more disappointed of the matter that you hid it from me.”

Lucas gave him a look of disbelief next. “You honestly would’ve been okay with it?” His hands clenched and un-clenched at his sides, remembering all the cruel jokes Louie had made about homosexual men throughout most of their youth. “I know you Louie. There’s a reason I wanted to wait. Besides I don’t think I should have to tell you everything that goes on in my personal life friend or not.”

His back soon made contact with a palm-tree. Louie’s gripping him by the front of the shirt. Blue eyes boring into soft green ones. “Do you have any idea what that was doing to me?” He spat. “I thought someone had hurt you. I thought that was the reason you were being so secretive. It was killing me on the inside not knowing what was going on with you.”

“Louie let me go. You’re drawing attention.” Lucas spoke through gritted teeth.

But Louie didn’t. Instead his grip on Lucas tightened. “That’s funny coming from you,” he breathed into his ear. “You sure didn’t mind it last night with Mac. I heard everything that went on....the walls aren't that thick."

Lucas’s breath hitched in his throat.

He bit the inside of his cheek feeling Louie press further into him only to finally gather the strength to push him away. Louie stumbles back a bit.

“You’re the one who sure as hell isn’t acting like a friend right now.” Lucas hisses out. With that, he turned on his hell and stormed away from Louie racing back to the others.

**PARAGRAPH**

Louie watched with jealousy as Lucas silently conversed with Mac throughout the search for the missing plane and its crew. They looked on out in the vast ocean, Mac cracking some type of joke that Lucas laughed at completely ignoring Louie all the while. Louie saw the genuine happiness over Lucas’s face that he wished he could bring as he used to.

Louie however tried to focus on the task at hand. Trying to appear happy and jovial. He didn’t want Phil nor Cuppernell to find out the truth..

Everything had gone quiet once again. Louie lowering his glasses. Still no sign of the missing plane. “…Lot of ocean.” He spoke aloud.

Phil’s voice came through. “Yeah. Lotta ocean…”

Lucas could be seen shaking his head, eyes never leaving in case he spotted something. He thought he had seen a raft floating out in the ocean but it turned out to be nothing. “So uh,” Cuppernell begins to tell a joke to lighten the solemn mood. “A duck walks into a bar right? Or waddles if you will-,”

“Uh-huh.” Louie and Phil chuckle.

“Anyway. He goes up to the bartender and asks can I have a Crème de menthe-.”

“Yeah?” Lucas laughs softly.

The laughter dies down almost instantly when the plane shakes and shudders. Only then do Louie and Lucas look at one another with wide eyes, Lucas quickly glancing out the window to see that the plane’s engine had burst cursing the lieutenant to hell for sending them out on a plane that clearly was not fly worthy.

“Damn that son of a bitch.” He spat out. “Engine’s busted.” He called back.

The plane was shuddering violently now beyond Phil’s or Cuppernell’s control. “We need more on the right!”

“Phil we’re giving it all its got!”

Dread began to pool in their stomachs. The Green Hornet was diving downward. Right. For the ocean depths.

“Uh…Phil?” Lucas called out again, clutching onto any part of the plane. “Cup?”

“Prepare to crash.”

Those three words were all they did not want to hear. A crash landing into the ocean usually meant an instant death. Louie and Lucas got down into crash positions, Mac holding the provisions box as a tail gunner would. Everyone else did the same. This was not going to be like back at Oahu where Phil would miraculously land the plane on some runway.

Lucas squeezed his eyes shut tight.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new Earth,” they hear one crew member praying aloud. “The former heaves and the former Earth had passed away and the sea was no longer.”

Lucas was witnessing Hell itself. As the water neared he heard Louie whisper softly. “It’ll suck us down: Remember those swimming lessons I gave you? Don’t stop kicking whatever you do!”

Lucas merely nodded.

“We’ll make it…trust me.”

An Earth shattering crash is soon heard. Then all Lucas can see is nothing but darkness.

 

 


	5. Stranded

Louie and Lucas kicked hard to the surface. Coughing and spluttering the salt water out knowing that if they swallowed any of it it could mean instant death. They look around frantically for their missing crew members-only finding Phil and Mac fortunately. Mac had been holding a bleeding Phil’s head with his hand stanching the blood flow.

The terrible sense and knowing of isolation mixed with loneliness was overwhelming.

The quartet managed to find the two emergency rafts, Phil being pushed on the one first, then Louie, Mac and finally Lucas who climbed aboard with his own strength. Their breaths floated around them in a cloud panting from exertion.

“Cuppernell?! Mitchell?!” Lucas tried calling out but there was no response.

It was eerily quiet.

A groan from Phil suddenly causes him to focus more on their injured friend, taking off his shirt and wrapping some around his bleeding head gently with Louie in the other raft taking out their emergency supplies.

“…We’re gonna die out here.” Mac suddenly began to tremble.

Lucas tried to rub his arms in an attempt to calm him. “Shut up Mac.” Louie spoke out softly.

“They don’t know where we are.”

“Mac that’s enough,” Lucas said next. “C’mon. Everything will be fine.”

But even Lucas’s words weren’t enough. The younger male purses his lips knowing he’ll regret doing this later yet if he doesn’t Mac will soon go into hysteria and that was something none of them needed right now. With a deep breath, Lucas slowly raises his hand and smacks him across the face.

The slap echoes around. Startling the three other men on the rafts at his actions. “Now,” he breathed out, placing a gentle hand on Mac’s face. “Listen. To me. We can’t freak out. You hear me? We all need to stay sharp. Keep our wits…and most importantly don’t let the ocean play tricks on us.”

“…He’s right,” Louie stated. Hair matted against his head. “Freaking out isn’t going to make things better.”

Lucas smiled softly at his friend, leaning in to let Mac wrap his arms around his frame. Holding him close as Louie began explaining they could only eat one square of chocolate in the evening, one square in the morning. No more than two sips of water.

“What about the sea water?” Lucas questioned.

“Won’t do any good,” Louie explained. Keeping a close eye on Phil’s bleeding head. “The salt water is like poison to the human body from what I read. And if you drink too much of it you’ll lose your mind…it’ll make you insane.”

“Let’s hope being out here alone won’t do that.” Lucas muttered, gazing up at the cloudless sky. Listening to the sound of nothing.

**PARAGRAPH**

_Day Four_

The sense of isolation and loneliness was beginning to become overwhelming as the four men lazily drifted about with the ocean current. Mac and Lucas tried keeping each other warm, rubbing each other’s arms.

“…I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to send a strongly worded letter to that asshole about all this.”

Louie, Mac and Phil managed to chuckle faintly at that. “Speaking of assholes,” Louie began. Shifting his gaze down to his feet. “Lucas I’m-.”

Lucas gave a shake of his head. Lifting his hand up. “Please don’t apologize Lou. I was out of line as well. I shouldn’t have said that to you.”

They continued to remain in silence for a few more minutes. The cold still surrounded them. Biting at their face. Lucas stared up at the sky as if he were in a trance. Staring up at the now star filled sky.

A shooting star passed quickly across. Smiling slightly, Lucas’s grip on Mac’s hand tightened. That had been the longest shooting star he had ever seen. Without realizing it a song his mother used to sing when he was afraid or upset came forth from his lips.

 _“Come Josephine, on my flying machine. Going up she goes, up she goes. Balance yourself like a bird on a beam…in the air she goes. In the air she goes.”_ Although he paused, unable to remember the rest of the words until Louie’s voice chimed in next.

Even in the dark, Lucas could see that he was grinning softly. _“Up, up a little higher. Oh my the moon is on fire,”_ Soon all the men are singing. Horrendously off key mind you-but it brought out a laugh in them at the least. It brightened their spirits. Giving them some hope that perhaps this would not be so bad after all.

_“One two, now we’re off my dear. Say you’re pretty soft dear. Whoa dear. Don’t hit the moon, no dear not yet. But soon.”_

Although it’s supposed to be a sweet, soothing song Lucas’s laughter isn’t really doing it justice. “Yeah,” Phil says weakly in between his own chuckles. “I don’t think we’re gonna be an acapella group anytime soon.”

“Hey my voice wasn’t that bad.” Mac spoke in a whisper-remembering those damned sharks were still floating about just beneath the rafts. “I’ve been told it’s like an angels. Right Luke?”

“…More like the sound of two cats fighting.”

The sergeant tosses Louie and Phil a playful glare hearing them snicker as they settle down to try and get a night’s rest.

Just as they are about to sleep however that’s when they hear it. An engine. A plane’s engine to be exact. With wide eyes the group of men immediately begin calling up, hoping that the pilot would hear them. Lucas waves some green dye in the blackened waters. Waving his arms with Louie and Mac.

“We’re down here!!”

“Hey we’re down here!!”

But their shouts and even the green dye were deaf to the pilot’s ears. Moving right on into the night. Defeated do the men slump back down. Tears threaten to pool in Lucas’s eyes yet none fall.

“Tomorrow.” Louie all but mutters. “They’ll send another out tomorrow. I know it.”

“I hope you’re right Lou…I hope you’re right.”

While Mac and Phil sleep for the night Louie and Lucas talk quietly among one another. Unable to find sleep themselves even though they know to at least try. “So when we get out of here what’d you and Mac plan to do?” Louie asked, making an attempt to be supportive of the couple and to give Lucas hope.

Lucas smiles light at him. Looking at Mac’s sleeping form. “…We planned on eloping. Mother was against the idea of us, well you know. But father assured that he would find someone to try and marry us or at the least make it known we’re married…”

Louie gave a nod.

“And if you’re still not comfortable of the idea-.”

“No way am I going to not show up. I…I know I gave you a hard time about that stuff before. But, I didn’t realize how much it had hurt you. We’re friends after all right?” Louie flashed him his infamous Zamperini grin.

“Yeah,” Lucas breathed out. Feeling more than relief knowing these situations could work out after all. “…Friends for life.”

As the two eventually drift off to sleep Mac begins to stir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I obviously am not owner of the song 'Come Josephine' ^^; Thought it'd be kind of a light-hearted moment to add before things really start to go downhill.


	6. No Angels

__

 

The next few weeks had dragged on longer than Lucas had hoped. They managed to choke down some Albatross meat the third time Louie had one land on his head, only with this one they found some fish inside its stomach taking them out and using them as bait.

Mac was almost slowly growing back to his old self before the crash and Phil’s wounded head had stopped bleeding. “You know: Food isn’t good unless it’s cooked and flavored.” Louie commented over one meal of raw fish. He was beginning to grow a small beard as was Phil, Mac had a moustache forming and Lucas had just a bit of a moustache on his own face.

“Little butter. Garlic…” His mind soon shifted to that of his mother. Louise Zamperini made the absolute best food around-Lucas always enjoyed every dinner he had with the Zamperini’s. “Mom made the best dishes.”

“Like her nyoki?’ Lucas couldn’t help but mention.

Louie grinned instantly at the mention of the famed Italian pasta. “Oh yeah. No one could cook Nyoki like she did.”

“What’s in it?” Mac asked out of genuine interest.

“She made it out of the finest of flour…like powder. Then it was followed by twelve eggs. You can add cheese in it too right?”

Louie nodded. “Right. Then she’d mix it all up in a blender,” he added a blender effect for dramatization. “What was that herb she’d mix in Luke?”

“Sage. Oh man and is it PACKED with flavor…”

They proceeded going into more detail about the food describing what every bite they took felt like. An imaginary dinner was thus prepared followed by a dessert consisting of Lucas’s aunt’s banana pudding.

“God was that ever creamy,” Louie sighed in a dream like tone. Resting his head on Lucas’s right shoulder while Mac did the same with his left. “What type of cookie did she put in it?”

“Uh wafers I think.” Lucas replied.

“No I think you said lady fingers.” Phil added.

“Ah right!”

Mac had become still and quiet again however. He was now becoming a skeleton day by day. Face sunken in…eyes dull and lifeless. He talked briefly any more on the twenty second day and less so after they were attacked by a Japanese bomber.

Lucas feared that he was beginning to lose his future husband day by day. Sometimes at night, Louie would hear him utter a silent pleading prayer in a hoarse, cracked voice before he’d break into another cry again.

Louie wanted to hold him. Tell him that everything will be alright….but how could he when even he himself was beginning to lose hope.

**PARAGRAPH**

The sun glistened bright in the clear blue sky the next day. Phil was quietly talking with Mac and Lucas while Louie decided to take the chocolate out for breakfast. Lucas couldn’t help but notice Mac barely said a word. About to ask him what the matter was when Louie spoke up.

“…Where’s the chocolate Mac?”

His voice was firm while Mac looked like a scared child about to face a scolding from his parents. “Mac?” Lucas’s voice whispered. “What did you do?’

“It doesn’t matter.”

That response was enough to set Louie off. “It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter?!” He threw the wrappers at his comrade shrugging Lucas off when the other tried calming him down.

Lucas looked back and forth between his friend and future husband. A weary sigh escaping his lips, biting his bottom lip gently. Tension had begun to arise between the men in the raft. Lucas’s eyes began to water but he wasn’t sure if it was due to the wind or simply out of frustration.

**PARAGRAPH**

Exhaustion finally taking its toll on all four men. Lucas had tried to sing like he had the first night, but, found he was unable with his lips chapped and salt sores along them.

Noticing a tear slip from Mac’s eye, Lucas slowly moves over brushing his lips against the other’s cheek. “Hey…It’s not your fault.” Louie snorted in disbelief at that statement causing Lucas to flash him a haughty expression. “Something you want to say?”

“Oh no. I’m good.” Louie replies looking away from the couple.

His expression told it all however. Louie resented Mac as of now there were no doubts of that. Yes, Mac did eat their rations but could Lucas blame him entirely for it?

As the day carried on with no conversation, Louie was surprised to feel something land atop of his head. Glancing carefully as possibly upward they saw that it was an Albatross. Phil, Mac and Lucas all look at one another. Giving a slow nod.

Louie raises one of his hands up. Mac doing the same. “Easy…Easy.”

“Now!”

A struggle took place. Ultimately the bird was unmatched for the four men, Lucas and Phil try not to grimace when Louie cuts its stomach open with a pocket knife revealing the meat inside. The stench was appalling.

“I’m…going to hurl. We can’t eat that.” Lucas moaned out.

“We gotta try.” Louie muttered, cringing as he took a piece of meat out offering them each a large enough slice.

Within seconds they were vomiting right into the ocean. “You know,” Phil coughed out. “I-I read somewhere that it’s bad luck…to eat an Albatross. It was in a poem: A sailor shot at one and as punishment he was to wear the bones of the bird around his neck while seeing his dead crew members that died with him in a storm.”

Louie stared at him incredulously not one to believe in superstitions. “Phil after all we’ve been through so far I don’t think our luck could get any worse.”

The man shrugged one shoulder. “Just saying…”

Lucas was fortunate Phil handed him some water in his pint to wash out the vomit taste in his mouth, shuddering at the remains of the bird they tossed in the ocean. “I dunno Lou…I kind of have a bad feeling about that.”

“Or it could just be your stomach.” Mac suggested realistically, too drained of energy to even eye roll of the fact Lucas believed in such things to.

Just as he was about to sit back down, Phil noticed a book floating in the water causing him to arch a brow-carefully reaching over to grab it seeing the worlds JOURNAL in big bold letters on the brown leather.

“Hey my journal!” Lucas’s eyes shined at the sight of it, surprised that it was still intact when Phil hands it back to him.

“And why is this a good thing?” Louie couldn’t help but question the excited tone in his friend’s voice.

“Because my photo should be…ah here.”

Feeling nothing but relief, Lucas takes out a black and white photograph of him, his aunt, uncle and three cousins seeing him off before he went to meet up with Louie that fateful morning. His mother refused to meet with him after learning about his relationship with Mac.

The other men’s gazes softened at the image. Suddenly missing their families.

“Mom didn’t show up huh?” Louie asked quietly.

Lucas all but shook his head. “…No. She refused my calls when I tried getting ahold of her. I knew she answered but when I tried explaining she hung up.”

Mac looked down at his hands. Clenching them slight. A terrible guilt pooling in his stomach. He just wanted to marry Lucas, he didn’t think it would come between Lucas and his mother. “But it’s alright,” Lucas finished. Grinning faintly. “Mom…She was always so hard headed. Didn’t want me to marry or date anyone but a woman. Should’ve seen her face when she caught Mac in my room one night.”

Now that managed to cause a grin to creep up the sergeant’s face. “Oh yeah. You know she actually yanked me off of him? Tiny little thing to.”

The four laugh as Lucas and Mac continue telling stories of how they had to really sneak around with Mrs. Shaw always around.

“Hey Louie.”

Louie had been looking at the stars twinkling in the now darkened sky. He had not once seen stars so clear and so bright before. Louie turned on his side to find Lucas talking to him in the other raft, laying beside a sleeping Mac with an arm around his waist.

“….What’s wrong? You’re not still sick from the Albatross meat?” Louie questioned in a whisper.

Lucas shook his head ‘no’ in assurance. His gaze shifting towards the sky then back to the remains of their plane. “D’you think there’s a reason we were the only ones who survived the crash?” He whispered out loud.

Louie had in truth wondered the same thing. Why was it just them specifically it seemed? He was buried under all that debris practically only to awaken moments later with enough strength to pull himself out and towards the surface.

“I’m not sure Luke,” he whispers back. Gazing up at the sky again as another shooting star passes over. “It’s strange though isn’t it?”

“I feel like we were chosen to live. Why though I’m not sure either.”

Lucas looked at him with his soft green eyes. Louie swallowed a lump in his throat. Looking anywhere but at his friend’s eyes. He was silhouetted by the faint glow of the crescent moon. “You think I’m crazy probably don’t you?”

“Well…”

“Louie.”

The Italian man laughs quietly at his friend’s playful glare. “I’m kidding. No. No I don’t think you’re crazy at all…it is strange. Definitely. We should be getting more rest though…have another long day ahead of us.”

The days to come were going to be just as long and as grueling.

**PARAGRAPH**

_Day 33_

The castaways continue to drift about along the ocean. When Lucas lays Mac’s head against his chest he can feel his heart shatter at the vast amount of weight he had lost. The horrible, unrelenting reality was finally beginning to sink in.

“Am I going to die?” Mac asked in a small voice.

The other three men look at one another, knowing it would not be fair to lie to him. Louie rests his head on Mac’s body, squeezing his hand gently while Lucas slowly runs a hand through his hair. “I think this is it Mac…” He whispers. His voice wavering.

“…I think it’s going to be tonight.” Mac speaks again. His body deathly still.

They laid beside him for what they knew to be one last time.

Sometime during the night, Lucas awoke to the sounds of a deep outrust of air…he closed his eyes. Breathing out his own slow breaths. His arms shook as they were still wrapped around Mac’s still body.

Lucas is still unwilling to let him go. Phil makes an attempt to talk to him. “Luke…I’m so sorry. He’s gone. You have to let us take him. We all cared about him. I promise, he’ll be given a proper burial.”

It takes some time for Lucas to allow them to give Mac an ocean burial. As they prepared his body Louie spoke up talking good things about him. “He really loved his mess hall pie didn’t he?”

Lucas’s lips actually managed to curve in that of a light grin. “Yeah. He did…Swear he sometimes loved food more than me.”

With Phil’s father being a pastor of a Baptist Church he gave Mac a religious eulogy. Then saying a prayer for himself, Louie and Lucas. Lucas watched as they carefully handled Mac’s wrapped body-beginning to lower it into the ocean. The body hovers over the waters for a brief moment before sinking into the ocean depths.

The ring Mac had given Lucas some time ago glistens under the moon’s light.

Louie wraps his arms around Lucas with Phil following shortly after. This time, Lucas does not pull away. And the tears fall freely down his face not trying to hold them back. The trio huddled together that night.

The sharks that circled their raft leaving Mac’s body be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mac's death was very difficult to write and for me one of the toughest scenes to get through in the movie ;; He was so close to getting out of there (well not in a good way of course) and he horrifically does not end up making it. Really like how they portrayed it in the movie so much emotion


	7. Imprisoned

On the forty seventh day Louie, Lucas and Phil were captured by a Japanese army. Lucas’s green eyes opened and it revealed to be that he was placed in a small and tight squeezed prison. Spider and rat infested-he had nowhere to move nor crawl away when a rat went up to his foot sniffing it curiously before scurrying out. His hand automatically goes to his head, daring to let out a scream at the pain after being hit hard with an awful bamboo cane.

“Lucas? You alright?” Louie’s weak, tired voice sounded. The other male was relieved that his friend was alright and knowing Phil was in the prison beside there’s. “How about you Phil?”

“I’m fine…land feels funny. How’re you guys?”

“Just fine.” Lucas whispered back. His head was covered with blood, clothes torn from an obvious struggle before he was tossed in. To stanch the bleeding he with shaken hands tears some of his white shirt under his uniform off to wrap it around best he could. Blood coats it instantly. “I’m glad you guys are alright…”

Louie’s voice sighs from his prison. He’s about to say more when Lucas hears his door slide open. Lucas instantly straightens, lips formed in a thin line when it reveals to be a Japanese soldier. A hard faced man with another beside him. His lips curve into a wicked smile. “Well…let’s begin the interrogation shall we?”

Shortly after he and Louie are dragged from their prison out into the open area. Rain is pouring down in sheets matting against his hair and the blood around his head. They’re soon met with a Japanese commander or general eating a generous bowl of rice before him.

“How many American GI’s are on the island of Hawaii?” He asks in Japanese. A translator repeats in English.

Louie gives a shake of his head after sharing a look with Lucas. “I-I don’t know…We wouldn’t know.” Their stomachs burned with hunger at the sight of the food the man was eating and their throats were dry. Desperately in need of water.

“How do you use the Norden bombsight?” The translator asks this time.

Lucas gave a hard swallow. “I…We’ve been on a raft. Sir. For at least forty seven days…we honestly don’t know what you’re asking of us.”

The translator gives them an incredulous look, whispering to the higher up what he was just told. Hope fills their hearts thinking that the commander would believe them and let them and Phil go home.

But they were mistaken.

The same man whom had dragged them out emerged. Lucas had to use what little strength he had to hold Louie back. “If you even dare lay another hand on him or Phil again-.” The man held up a hand to silence him. Laughing maliciously dismissing Louie as a mere boy instead of the lieutenant he actually was. His face was inches from theirs.

“Looks like you’re off to camp.”

Camp. Lucas knew all too well what that had meant. He’d heard many a horror tale of what those ‘camps’ were like. They were pure Hell on Earth for the captives whom were treated as if they weren’t the human beings they were.

Before long were they taken back to Tokyo. Blindfolded and hands tied in front of him. Although he could not see in the ship hold they were in, Lucas could feel other captives around feeling terribly sorry they too had to suffer. Soon after they were marched down a ramp-Phil was holding onto Lucas’s shoulders for balance while Lucas did the same to Louie.

Then Phil’s weight was gone.

“Zamp…! Luke…!”

“Phil?!”

“Phil where are you?!”

Lucas looks around madly for their friend cursing the blindfold that was put around his eyes. He couldn’t see a damn thing through it yet had a gut wrenching feeling Phil was taken. _Please no…God no…We already lost Mac. Don’t let Phil…God please_ he begged again and again in his mind.

Once more again were they herded like cattle into a wagon. Lucas’s untied hands were now on his head. Gripping his hair out of frustration.

“….This is Tokyo,” Louie’s voice muttered out suddenly. “I’ve always wanted to go to Japan.”

“Be-careful what you wish for pal.” A man beside him spoke out.

**PARAGRAPH**

The heat was unbearable. Sweltering. The camp looking nothing more than a dessert when Louie was finally able to remove the blind fold from his eyes, seeing Lucas do the same. It were as if the men were in a different world that was not their own. This was the infamous Omori prison camp.

His heart began to ache for Phil. Wondering what kind of hell he must be going through...and his mind drifts to Mac. Mac was a tough guy. A real tough guy, even through the end Louie could see that. But could even someone like Mac endured what they went through if he-?

Louie could practically feel Lucas stiffen beside him, about to whisper in his ear what was wrong. “Look up and see for yourself.” He muttered.

And that. Was when HE had appeared.

Mutsuhiro. Watanabe.

Louie glanced over at Lucas in confusion, not at all understanding why Lucas and some of the other men seemed so afraid of him. But listens as the corporal speaks.

“I am Corporal Watanabe. You are enemies of Japan and you will be treated accordingly.” Watanabe looks deep into the man’s eyes. Those eyes were ones you would never be able to shake from your mind…it were as if he were staring into your very soul. Or knew all of your thoughts. Your fears.

Louie all but watches curiously as he moves down the line of men. Boots hissing along the sandy ground as he walks. He bows his head however after Lucas nudges him in the ribs muttering something about it being a sign of respect in Japanese culture.

But it was too late. The strong, dominating man advanced towards Louie. Lucas doesn’t even bite his lip out of fear at the sight of him.

“Look at me.” Watanabe demanded. Louie heard the slight sarcastic tone in his voice. “Look me in the eye.” Watanabe orders again. He blows hot breath purposely on the Italian’s face moving in intimidatingly close. Beside him Louie swears he hears Lucas snarl under his breath ever so quietly before he’s hit with a thin painted bamboo cane.

“LOOK AT ME.” Watanabe orders louder this time blasting Louie again with the cane. But Louie gets right back up, being defiant. Not caving in. In fact, it’s almost as if he’s daring Watanabe to hit him again. “New prisoners... you are not dismissed...you will stand quarantine. We cannot have disease in the barracks.” With that, Watanabe walks swiftly away. Clearly annoyed of Louie’s defiance.

Or in Lucas’s thoughts…outright stupidity.

Which, once they were out of quarantine for the rest of the night Lucas did in fact go on a nagging session much to Louie’s great annoyance. “What the hell was that?!” Lucas couldn’t help but reach up since Louie was slightly taller to give him a whack on the back of the head. “Do you have ANY idea who that man was Lou? Do you?”

“Hey thanks a lot for asking me about my broken nose,” Louie couldn’t help but snap as he was led to his bunk. “It’s just fine and dandy. And no…who the hell was that guy?”

Lucas shook his head in disbelief. Plopping down beside Louie in his bunk about to reply when another man beat him to it.

“I see you fellas met The Bird.”

Louie glanced over at their barracks commander in confusion before looking back at Lucas. The other man indicated to his broken nose. “Mutsuhiro Watanabe,” Lucas began. “The guy that broke your nose. I’ve read a lot about him during my breaks back at university…he’s downright psychotic.”

“Ditto on that.” A guy they met prior, Frank Tinker said in agreement.

“Heard he grew up wealthy,” their barracks commander added. A man with sandy colored hair and kind, but tired brown eyes. “Wanted to become an officer but didn’t get the position he desired.”

“But none of this explains his erratic behavior.”

Louie and Lucas looked over to the owner of the new voice. A man appearing to be in his early fourties wearing an American commander’s uniform. A faint grin could be seen in the dim lighted room, followed by the man giving them a salute in acknowledgement. “Commander Fitzgerald.”

“Lieutenant Zamperini sir…” Louie responded with his still stuffed up voice.

“Lieutenant Bone Head more like it,” Lucas muttered ignoring the eye roll Louie gave his way. “Second Lieutenant Shaw sir.”

“Shaw?” Tinker piped up in genuine curiosity. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to…?”

“Robert Gould Shaw?” Lucas finished. Unable to help the somewhat prideful grin from creeping up on his face. Glad to know people had not forgotten about his great-great-great grandfather. “Yup that’d be him…led the 54th Massachusetts-an all African American regiment.”

Glancing down, Louie grimaces inwardly at the sight of Fitzgerald’s fingernails. Or, none of his nails he should say. The commander looks down in thought at them. “Wanted information.” He muttered, referring to the Japanese.

“But they didn’t get any. Did they?” The barracks commander spoke.

“Not one bit.”

A faint smile twitched across Louie’s face at the smug sound Fitzgerald held in his tone.

“Best to get some shut eye you two. We’ve got a long month ahead of us.”

“Yes sir.”

**PARAGRAPH**

“Luke?”

Lucas had been staring up blankly at the barrack ceiling, looking at the engagement ring Mac had given him months ago still on his ring finger. Lucas turned on his side to face Louie whom was right beside him in his bunk. The other captives were all asleep. It was only them, reminding Lucas of the times he and Louie used to stay up late at night when they were to be in bed talking and laughing.

God how he missed those care-free days.

“You still awake?” Louie muttered. Careful not to wake the others.

Lucas gave a nod. Also careful of any Japanese officers that might be eavesdropping outside. The walls weren’t thick.

“Yeah. I…can’t sleep at all. How about you?”

“Same as you.” Louie sighed. “You think Phil’s alright wherever they took him?”

Lucas didn’t know how to answer. Phil was another tough guy from what he’d seen, he didn’t know anyone else who would be capable stamina wise to survive a plane crash with a concussion.

“I believe so,” Lucas admitted with honesty. He propped his elbow up looking at Louie with his eyes that seemed to glow. God why couldn’t Louie look away from those eyes? Even when they had been in their teens he found himself with this…confliction of sorts.

“Really?” He whispered. Sounding hopeful.

Louie swallowed. Making an attempt to focus his gaze elsewhere. Anywhere but at Lucas but like on the raft and so many a time before he could not.

“Really.” Lucas nodded. “I don’t know Phil all that much, aside from being with him on that raft…but he’ll make it. Just like you and me will.”

“Zamp&Luke.” Louie muttered, a grin forming as Lucas laughs softly.

Frank Tinker turned over on his bunk just beside Lucas’s with an annoyed expression. His eyebrow arching curiously at how close they appeared to be distance wise.

“Will you girls can it with the chatter? Some of us are trying to sleep.”

He was met with Lucas or Louie tossing one of their pillows at his face.


	8. Mother

The sun set high in the sky over Torrence.

Mariam Shaw. A woman close to her early fifties, shoulder length blond hair that used to be that of a platinum shine was now nothing more than a dull greyish appearance due to that of the worry and stress in her life now.

Her red high heels click along the steps of the Zamperini house hold knocking twice on the front door. Gripping her designer shoulder bag tight in her hand.

Mariam had not seen Louise nor her husband since she had volunteered to become a nurse to help the men in combat leaving her only son behind…

Or. Someone she used to call a son.

Muffled talking could be heard followed by that of hurried footsteps before the door soon opens. “Louie?! Lucas?!” Louise Zamperini made her presence. Mariam was almost taken aback by Louise’s appearance. She no longer looked like the vibrant, vivacious woman she had known Louise to be so long ago. Her hair was frizzed, sticking up at odd ends and her hand held a nasty rash that would not go away.

“…Hello Louise.” Mariam spoke after finally speaking. Her voice was dull. Speaking in that of a low drawl sound.

“Oh. Mariam,” Louise tried to mask her disappointed expression. Eyes red rimmed from crying almost every night for her son and one she always thought of as a son. “I…I thought-never mind. Would you like to come in?”

“If you don’t mind dear.”

Mr. Zamperini whom was currently praying for Louie and Lucas at the time was more than shocked seeing Mariam Shaw just waltz right into their home. Lucas’s younger sister Bella was currently studying at university though the only thing on the poor girl’s mind was the fate of her only brother and his best friend.

Here she had not said a word to any of them since Lucas’s ‘situation’ as Mariam would spit out and now she was gracing them with her appearance?

“I heard about Louie, Louise,” Mariam began. Thanking Virginia Zamperini for pouring them a cup of tea. Louise made sure to give Virginia a warning look noting her daughter was about to say something she should not utter. “I’m so sorry. You all must be wracked with worry.”

“We haven’t heard of him or Lucas in days,” Louise said softly. Squeezing her husband’s hand when she could feel him grip her non rashed one tight. “You must be worried as well.”

“I suppose,” Mariam sniffed taking a sip of her tea. “I still can’t believe he had the nerve to treat me like that before he left with Louie and that…man.”

Louise could just hear the venom in Mariam’s voice knowing she was spitefully talking of Mac-the one Lucas had secretly been writing to and even engaged unbeknownst to Mariam…but now Louise was beginning to understand why he was too afraid to say anything.

“It’s so appalling to think my son…my little boy is with another man of all things,” Mariam continued to rant on. “Oh if only his father were here. Then again I suppose I should have seen it coming…” She sighed in actual disappointment.

Louise was floored. Her son was out there MISSING or possibly dead for all they knew and Mariam was worried about him being in a relationship with Mac than of his safety? “Well…I’m sure Lucas intended to tell you,” Louise tried to explain. “But you know how shy he is, Mariam.”

“That Mac fellow…he influenced Lucas I just know it. Lucas was so normal before he met McNamara. Oh Louise…I fear for my boy I truly do. He used to be such a good person. Used to have a good soul. A CLEAN soul.”

“And he still does.” Mr. Zamperini muttered out.

Mariam and Louise looked at him in surprise. Mariam narrowed her green eyes towards him.

“Dear don’t-.” Mrs. Zamperini pleaded although she to had so much to say to Mariam but did not want to cause an argument. But that didn’t stop Mr. Zamperini from speaking. Narrowing his eyes right back at her.

“Your son…your boy is out there. Floating around on some ocean or kidnapped and all you can worry about is the fact he’s homosexual?”

“It’s in the Bible,” Mariam hissed out. Her hands clenching and un clenching. “That a man shall not lay with another man as he would a woman. He’s destined for Hell don’t you understand?”

“I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand,” Mr. Zamperini spat. Gently pushing his wife’s hand away continuing on. He loved Lucas as if he had been his own son. He didn’t care if she was his mother he wasn’t going to sit idly by and let her talk about him in such a negative light. “Lucas came to us one night because he was too afraid to say anything to you. His own mother.

I’ve had a chance to meet with Mac as well. He’s a good man with a good heart whom said he would give his life for your son. Does that sound like someone whom is destined for Hell? Yes the Bible does say that it’s wrong…but you’re forgetting one important message the Lord also wants us to share with others…Love.

You threw your love for your own son away all because he has found someone in his life that will do anything for him. YOU have committed a sinful act. A mother is supposed to LOVE their children no matter what. You ABANDONED him when he was in the most need right after his father died!”

“Dear that’s enough!” Louise finally spoke up, calming her shaken husband down giving a glaring look however at an aghast Mariam.

“I don’t have to take this.” Mariam snapped, slamming her tea cup down storming out to the front door. “If you love Lucas so much more than take him. I wash my hands of him. He is no longer my child.”

“At least he’ll be with a family who loves him for who he is! Not with a spiteful old hag!”

“Virginia!” Louise scolded. Before she could apologize to Mariam the woman had already gone. Making sure to slam the door to the point something fell from the table.

“I don’t know how Lucas put up with her.” Virginia muttered.

Louise shot her another warning look before wrapping an arm around her husband’s slumped shoulders. “You did the right thing,” she whispers in his ear. Voice wavering slightly yet a small smile could be seen as Mr. Zamperini gives a faint one in return.

“Are you sure you’d be up for it Louise? Helping Lucas get on his feet when he and Louie return?”

Louise’s face said it all.

They really would do anything for that young man. He had become such an impact on their lives…unbeknownst to them, to Louie’s as well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a brief introduction of Lucas's 'darling mother'. Real peach isn't she? ^^;


	9. Chapter Nine

Omori truly got its reputation of being known as a ‘Punishment Camp’ when Watanabe was in charge. Lucas had heard all sorts of horrific tales of this particular corporal. At first, he assumed they were only fabrications the Japanese soldiers created to strike fear into the enemy. But the more he, Louie, Frank and the others stayed the more they knew just what a monster he truly was.

Lucas Shaw tiredly trudged inside the barrack after a long day of working with little to no breaks. Watanabe made damn well sure all his prisoners-yes including the officers-had a ‘fare’ he claimed amount of labor.

While waiting for Louie to return, the young man begins to write in his journal he kept secretly under his shirt.

_October 12 th, year 1942. As of today, myself and Louie Zamperini have been held hostage in Omori POW camp for…God I don’t even remember the days anymore. They’re all bunched up together it seems like. The other captives we’ve met are some of the most interesting individuals I’ve ever come across (aside from Louie of course…no one can take his spot). _

_I truly miss California deeply with all my heart and soul._

_I miss the care-free days before the damned war even started. Where everything felt…normal._

_It really has not been the same at all though without Mac around. He…has sadly passed on. It happened about a month ago, his death and yet my heart still hurts. It’s hard to believe he’s gone still we’ve had so much to live for. Adopt a child together, grow old with one another….it’s still unbelievable. Like I’m living a nightmare._

_But…but I’m not going to give up._

_Louie. Yes. Dear Louie…I still have him. And Phil. I have to keep myself alive no matter what. They need me and I…I need them._

_I’ll survive. The rest of us will. I know it._

_-Lucas Gould Shaw_

Lucas uttered a sigh as he tucked his journal back under his shirt, resting against the wall listening to the dull and quiet chatter of the other captives before drifting off to sleep. Greatly unsettled as to what the next days ahead would bring.

**~-----------~**

Fall was nearing its end Louie had noticed when he, Lucas, Frank, Fitzgerald and other captives marched out standing before Watanabe’s office. At the presence of Watanabe the POW’s watch as he paces along. “We have, an opera singer…who is the opera singer?” Watanabe questioned, his eyes flickering among the POW’s until Tinker raised his arm. “We also have a chef,” he continued next looking down at his clipboard that held each profession a POW had. “From Finley, Australia. And last…we have an Olympic athlete,”

A cold chill ran up Louie’s spine the minute the corporal’s gaze locked with his. Half tempted to hold onto Lucas’s hand and did not dare to all the same.

“Who. Is the Olympic athlete?”

After finally raising his hand Louie was ordered to race against a Japanese soldier…the man who had his eye on Lucas as of late. His fists clenched with determination to beat him in the ‘race’ before Watanabe fired the pistol.

This wasn’t even close to what Louie could do and the Japanese guards knew it. “C’mon Louie,” are the words Louie could see Lucas mouth as his friend stared with wide green eyes. But his legs shook and wobbled. His breathing became labored. _You can’t fall Zamp…gotta keep moving. Run. Like. Hell._ He had told himself over and over in his mind.

His face soon met with dirt. Knees scraping painfully against the ground, ironically right at the corporal’s feet.

The Japanese guard had won.

“You failed,” Watanabe drawled out. Seeming to tower over the breathless Louie. “You…Are nothing.”

Pain coursed through Louie’s face as Watanabe slams his foot down onto it proceeding to walk away with his hands clasped behind his back. Tears threaten to fall from his eyes yet none are shed.

“Louie…C’mon. Let’s get you back to the barrack.”

Lucas’s sweet, comforting voice seemed to have soothed him as he and Fitzgerald helped bring Louie to their barrack.

**~-------------~**

“Lucas….will you sing for me?” Louie asked of his friend that night.

A faint smile crossed Lucas’s face, Louie’s head resting against his shoulder. The two sitting side by side on Louie’s bunk. “What would you like me to sing Lou?” He asked quietly.

“’Come Josephine?””

The dark haired male seemed to hesitate but he nods. Having sudden flashbacks on their first night on the raft out in the grand ocean. _“Come Josephine, on my flying machine. Going up she goes, up she goes. Balance yourself like a bird on a beam…in the air she goes. In the air she goes,”_ Lucas began. Voice soft and calm.

_“Up, up a little higher. Oh my the moon is on fire,”_

Tears began to pool in the corners of his eyes, Louie could see. It was clear Lucas was remembering Mac and Phil…yet the gentle, light melody calmed him all the same as it did some of the other captives.

_“One two, now we’re off my dear. Say you’re pretty soft dear. Whoa dear. Don’t hit the moon, no dear not yet. But soon.”_

Lucas’s voice broke near the end but he kept on singing. Tears flowing freely down his face, some landing on Louie’s hands yet he doesn’t pay any heed to the wetness.

_“Come Josephine…in my flying machine. Going up. Going up there she goes. Balance yourself like a bird on a beam. In the air she goes. There she goes. Oh my, the moon is on fire. Come Josephine…in my flying machine. Going up, all on, goodbye.”_

With shaken hands, Louie raised one up to wipe the tears away when Lucas had finished.

“Please don’t cry Luke,” Louie whispered. Paying no heed if anyone was watching. “I hate seeing you cry…” Whenever Lucas cried Louie always felt like crying right along with him. He didn’t understand it or maybe he did. He didn’t know.

“I’m going to kill him.” Lucas muttered, referring to the Bird.

“Then they’ll shoot you.” Fitzgerald whispered aloud for the younger males to hear.

“I don’t give a damn. Let them shoot me. At least I’ll be put out of my misery.”

A re sounding slap echoed around the room suddenly. Lucas’s head was whipped to the side, a faint red mark of a hand-print could be seen. That one sentence caused Louie to sit up abruptly, grabbing his friend by the shoulders. “Don’t EVER say anything like this ever again…Please. You deserve to live just as much as we all do. You’re so important to us, to me. You can’t just give up! Would Mac want you talking like this?”

Wiping his eyes Lucas glanced down at the old photo of him and Mac. _Mac…._

“If I can take it. I can make it.” Louie spoke in a whisper this time, wiping one more tear that fell from Lucas’s left eye. “That’s what Pete used to tell us. Remember?”

Pete. Mr. and Mrs. Zamperini. His sisters. Although he didn’t have his parents, he still had them. And Louie. And Phil. Louie was right although Lucas would never admit it out loud. He’d thought about it for the rest of the night.

“…Hey Louie?”

Louie cracked one eye open, turning on his side to face Lucas. A soft smile crossing the others face.

“….I’m not going to give up. You hear me?”

At the sight of his grin Louie couldn’t help but return one. Intertwining his hand with Lucas’s. “Back at you.” He whispered.

And neither would he.


	10. Time Bomb

Louie and Lucas were more than surprised when Watanabe called them into his office-or had one of the guards come and retrieve them. Fear emitted off of their bodies after giving the corporal a salute before he motioned the duo to have a seat in front of his desk. A kind smile actually plastered on his face.

Kind. That was a word Louie nor Lucas thought they would ever associate Watanabe with.

“I’m so very glad you came.” He said in a seemingly ‘genuine’ tone that struck Louie, glancing at his friend with a raised brow. Lucas shrugged. Perhaps the man was drunk? Louie then focused back as Watanabe poured all three of them a cup of piping hot tea. “I hope you don’t mind tea. It’s a lovely flavor: Do you like mint at all?” When Louie did not answer, still questioning the corporal’s intentions Lucas spoke up.

“Um….Yes sir. Mint’s a favorite of mine actually.” He said with a smile of his own although it does not meet his eyes. He hopes Watanabe does not notice-fortunately he does not. Glancing down at the green liquid in his cup, Lucas took but a light sniff just to make sure nothing had been put in that would either make them sick or kill them.

Louie watched with nervous anticipation as Lucas brought the cup to his lips, his throat moving up and down while swallowing. When he sat it back down on his tea plate he flashed Louie an assuring smile that it was not poisoned.

Nodding at his friend’s assurance Louie took small sips of his own, eyeing Watanabe curiously and with caution.

Some minutes soon to be hours dragged on with no conversation. Watanabe drummed his fingers light on his desk when he spotted Mac’s engagement ring on Lucas’s finger which seemed to have sparked an interest glancing between the two.

“Do you have an engagement with one another?”

“What?” Louie nearly choked on his tea, causing Lucas to reach over patting him light on the back with a flushed face. “No-No sir,” he coughed. “I uh…We aren’t ‘like that’ with each other.”

Oh it pained him on the inside to address Watanabe as ‘sir’. He was not their true corporal. Fitzgerald and the others were the only ones who deserved that title as far as Louie was concerned.

Watanabe let out a chuckle leaning casually back in his chair. _Pence was right_ Lucas thought with a mild shudder, noting how calm and collected the man was like his new companion warned before they went. _He really is ‘nice as pie’ with us…but how long will it last?_

“My apologizes. The way you two are with one another one could only assume. So whom are you engaged to really?” The corporal asked again.

Lucas straightened himself before speaking. His fists clenched tight remembering Mac. “I was engaged to a man named ‘Mac McNamara’ but, I’m afraid he’s no longer with me…he died out at sea. Our wedding date was to be sometime after the war ended.”

He saw Watanabe nod seemingly with a solemn look. Louie gave a comforting pat on his knee. “I see,” Watanabe spoke softly. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I too lost someone I held dear to. Because of the war…”

“You have our condolences sir.” Lucas muttered softly.

As the conversation had ended, Watanabe dismissed the two lieutenants not before halting Lucas for a moment. “You can always come to me if you have no one else to talk about your situation.” Watanabe whispered in his ear, Lucas trying not to flinch the way his breath touched his ear.

“I will sir. Thank you again.” Lucas replied with a polite ‘smile’ that again does not match his eyes.

And again, Watanabe fortunately does not notice.

“That wasn’t bizarre at all.” Louie finally uttered out loud once they were far away from his office. Night was soon becoming morning as a mixture of blue and yellow could be seen in the skies. Few stars were out this evening.

“I have to agree.” Lucas muttered back, still leery if Watanabe was secretly following them. “Although I kinda wish he was really like that all the time.”

Louie chuckled softly holding onto his friend’s hand squeezing it tight. “So…by the way. I uh, I know I feel kinda stupid asking this,”

“Hasn’t stopped you before.”

The athlete rolled his eyes, punching Lucas light in the shoulder earning a snicker from the other. “Anyway. Uh….if you and Mac didn’t meet one another. Who would you have gone out with?”

He watched as Lucas cradled a hand under his chin. Furrowing his brow in thought. And why on Earth was Louie suddenly thinking he looked ‘cute’ being like that? “That’s a hard one Lou. I can’t imagine the thought of not meeting Mac….but I suppose I do have someone in mind.”

“Who?”

Lucas flashed him a playful wink. “It’s a secret. Sorry. Not sorry!”

“Luke get back here!”

“Have to catch me first!”

They spoke in whispers seeing as the guards could come out at any minute but that only fueled their adrenaline. Running around the prison camp like they were six again. Although Louie’s legs were weak from lack of proper exercise and nutrition, he was driven by something or someone to keep moving.

“Alright. Where ya hiding at Mutt?” He muttered, a devious grin on his face keeping an eye out. It was no wonder Lucas always won at hide and seek: The guy was a master of keeping himself in the shadows.

Then he saw it. A flicker of quick movement.

With a wide grin, Louie sprinted tackling a flailing and silently laughing Lucas effectively to the frost covered ground. Puffs of breath escaped their lips as Louie leant in close whispering playfully to his friend.

“Now I’ve got you.”

“Louie get off. Geesh: For a guy who doesn’t get any food your big.”

He arched a brow. “You aren’t calling me ‘fat’ are you Luke?” His grin soon becoming that of a very devious one. “Because you know what happens when you insult me.”

“Louie you jerk-wad. Don’t you-.”

But it was too late. Louie dug into Lucas’s ribs and stomach tickling him without mercy until Lucas raised his arms above his head. Tears of laughter streaming down his face. “Alright! Alright I give up…D-Damn it Louie I said I surrender!”

Finally did Louie let Lucas breathe the much needed air. But it felt good to laugh again. The two hadn’t realized how close they really were until Lucas blushed with Louie almost nose to nose with him thus scrambling off one another quickly.

“Uh…G-Glad you’re feeling better.” Louie pretended to clear his throat.

“Back at you.”

“Shaw! Zamp!”

Fear coiled in Louie’s belly as he and Lucas turned sharply around thinking Watanabe had caught them being out and not in their barracks. Fortunately, it was only Fitzgerald. “C’mon. Roll call: Get yourselves in gear.”

“Y-Yes commander.” They both saluted.

They scurried over quickly as possible. Yet all the while they walked, Louie swore that he saw a little ‘twinkle’ in the commander’s eyes and seeming to try and hide a smirk or a grin of sorts. _Oh shit. D-Did he see me and Luke? Was he watching all that time? Oh bloody....I’m never going to hear the end of this_

“Don’t worry Zamp.”

“Huh?”

The Italian man glanced up at the taller male who winked down at him. “I won’t tell a single soul.”

Louie couldn’t help but return a smile back.

**~------------~**

It seemed Lucas was wrong on Watanabe. The man became a tyrant once again that after noon. Relentless. He tied a poor older man to a tree all day with no food or water, knocked four of Pences’s teeth out with a kick to the face, Demetri was violently pushed into a scalding stove that burned half of his side.

Yet Louie was the one he went after the most out of all of them.

He beat Louie once again with his bamboo stick, catching the athlete for stealing an onion. Lucas had stepped in between hoping to reason with the corporal but he was beaten as well. The skin of his ear was almost ripped off when Watanabe struck him with his dreaded bamboo weapon. Luckily a POW physician helped stitch some of it back up.

“I’m beginning to think we did something to deserve all this.” Lucas whispered miserably to Louie that same night. His head resting against the others shoulder.

Louie nodded with a grim look. His face still numb from the cold and the beating. “I’m starting to believe you.”

From the corner of their eyes they could see Fitzgerald silently talking with another captive. Apparently it looked like he had most of the war already mapped out. Fitzgerald glanced back, mouthing ‘We’ve invaded the Marshall Islands. Allies are gaining ground’. Tossing them a little wink before returning to his conversation.

The younger males looked at one another. Hope washing over their faces. Perhaps this was it. America would win and they’d be able to go home.

If only…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title was in reference to Watanabe's...erratic behavior. Hope it's somewhat fitting. It actually intrigued me a bit in the book how the author mentions the 'kindness' he would show to his POW's only to drastically change seconds later. There's a definition for this but I don't think it's simply a bipolar disorder: What do you think?


	11. Peace?

It soon becomes a habit for Louie and Lucas to be with each other more. They ‘stuck together like glue’ in Frank Tinker’s words. They were almost never separated. Then there was that day…when Louie was sent to Tokyo upon Watanabe’s orders. Two well-dressed men came into the camp with friendly smiles.

 _That must be why he was so friendly to Louie and I…to get on his good side_ Lucas thought feeling nothing more than disdain towards the corporal. He tried keeping himself busy while Louie was away, focusing on his slave tasks. Hauling crap to dump in the ocean, loading and un-loading heavy bags of rice, cooking for the prisoners.

And he still waited.

He waited in the barracks that night. Tinker, Miller and Demetri tried talking to him but his mind was only on Louie.

“Hold him down Tsuyu!”

Lucas struggled violently as the Japanese soldiers violently tugged his clothes off. “Get off me!” He hissed. The other captives were asleep…or pretending to be asleep. Frank had his hands covering his ears, gritting his teeth listening to Lucas try and shove Watanabe off of him.

Rough hands stroked Lucas in an unpleasant manner. His back arched against the wall cringing with disdain as Watanabe stroked his hips and back thrusting in without warning. Lucas closed his eyes, trying to take his mind elsewhere. Thinking of Mac. Of Louie. Anything else but this.

At least Louie was away for a while…so he wouldn’t see him like this.

__

He collapsed to his knees, listening to Watanabe march out after cleaning himself tossing Lucas at least a dirtied rag. Only one of his men looked back with sympathy to the captive yet was unable to do nothing.

Tears did not fall as he crawled onto his bunk, feeling Miller place a blanket over him whispering in a choked voice that he’d be alright.

__

He laid still for the rest of the night. Every now and then Pence, Demetri, Frank someone would check on Lucas to make sure he was still alive.

He was alive. But looking nothing more than a broken doll.

**~------------~**

Days passed and Lucas still didn’t move. Still curled up in a ball, Lucas had not moved until he felt a pair of arms wrap around his frame. He struggled violently. Thinking Watanabe had returned to give him a beating or something far worse to punish Lucas.

“Lucas…It’s me. It’s me, Louie!”

When the other male opens his eyes, at the sight of Louie Lucas all but throws himself at his dear friend burying his face in the crook of his neck. Louie putting his face in his hair kissing the top of his head.

“Louie. You’re back. You’re really back…” Lucas choked out. It wasn’t a dream this time. He was here. In the flesh.

Louie chuckles softly, tears threatening to fall from his eyes as he presses his forehead against his most precious person. He hurt alright. Hurt like hell. But he couldn’t imagine the kind of hell Lucas endured while he was away. It only made him hate Watanabe even more. And not just hate but a pure, unrelenting LOATHING towards ‘The Bird’.

“Of course I’m here,” Louie whispered, closing his eyes feeling Lucas’s cold hand touch his bruised cheek rubbing it softly. “And I’m never going to leave you like this…ever again.”

**~-----------~**

Lucas couldn’t believe it…but it was happening. Frank, Harris, Demetri and Miller much to his great annoyance had begged him to take part in their ‘adaptation’ of the classic play ‘Beauty and The Beast’. It was all to please Watanabe in hopes that he would lay off them for at least a while and to cheer the other captives up.

He had not been in a play since he was at least five in elementary school. Poor guy ended up having intense stage fright: The minute his turn was on he froze. Unable to speak until the event had ended.

Lucas got the leading role of ‘Beauty’ aka Belle. A young woman with big dreams and a love for books while Frank would take on the ‘Beast’ aka Prince Adam’s role putting his opera talents to work. They even crafted Lucas’s ‘dress’ out of old rags and shirts using braided rope for female hair.

Demetri and Miller were to play as the servants-also enchanted by the enchantresses’ spell turning them into animated house hold items.

Right now they were doing the skit of ‘Beast’ scolding ‘Belle for being in the West Wing. Lucas fighting all he had not to burst out laughing how ridiculous Tinker looked…how ridiculous they all looked really.

“You shouldn’t have gone into the West Wing!” Tinker snapped faking a scowl of pain as Lucas acted as if he were dabbing an ointment on his ‘injured’ arm.

“And perhaps YOU should learn to control that temper of yours!” Lucas spoke in a somewhat higher pitched voice that indeed earned a bout of laughter or chuckles from the captives in the audience and some of the Japanese guards. Curiously, Lucas looked to see if Louie was paying attention.

A grin only a Zamperini could have was seen. Giving Lucas a wink of approval.

However seeing Watanabe suddenly sit beside Louie caused Lucas to growl under his breath. _Can’t that son of a bitch leave Louie alone for one minute of the day? What does he want from him? From us?_

“…..By the way,” Lucas spoke up clearing his throat. “I really am thankful you saved my life.”

Tinker/Beast looked at him with ‘surprise’. “You’re welcome.”

Lucas had all that time been secretly looking at Louie in the crowd, as if he were talking directly to him rather than Tinker.

Seeing the shocked look on Louie’s face he wondered just what Watanabe had said that caused Louie to be in such state. It was not a shock of anger or bitterness. But relief. He could see it clearly in Louie’s eyes and hope began to gradually fill Lucas’s heart.

LATER

Some hours had passed and the play finally came to an end with a surprising round of applause. Lucas quickly got out of his outfit, jogging/limping up to Louie glancing up at him. “What’s up? What’d he say to you?”

Firm hands clasped on Lucas’s shoulders then and Louie’s lips just barely brushed against his ear. “He’s leaving…Lucas. He’s finally leaving us.”

“Y-You’re for sure?” Lucas asked.

When Louie said nothing that was all Lucas needed to know. Gone. ‘The Bird’ was gone! They felt like dancing out of pure joy at the news that Watanabe’s tyranny over the camp was finally ceasing to an end.

And late that night when Watanabe finally did leave it was a huge celebration. One of the kinder Japanese guards even gave them full permission to write to their family’s that Christmas day. Louie made no haste needless to say to write to his family, smoking an American cigarette from his Red Cross box as Lucas did with his.

He was not a smoker by any means but that cigarette had been amazing to Lucas. It was then that they both noticed Pence and Demetri were not present blinking curiously.

“Oi,” Lucas asked nudging Miller. “Where’s Pence and Dem?”

Miller shrugged one shoulder. A little glint in his eyes seen clearly. “Where do you think?”

“….No way. You mean they’re-?”

Tinker rolled his eyes resting on his top bunk writing a letter to his soon to be wife. “C’mon. You’re ‘tellin me that you haven’t seen the way those two made googly eyes at each other?”

Louie and Lucas shook their heads. But they were thrilled all the same.

But as they talked about Pence and Demetri it only caused Louie to realize that he needed to come to his own terms with Lucas. That it was time he got things sorted out.

And soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One: I understand in the movie and book the play had been an adaptation *quite an amusing adaptation* of Cinderella but that was honestly never a favorite tale of mine, I always preferred Beauty and the Beast far more. Some lines were taken from the Disney picture and some of my own twist. 
> 
> Two: Whenever I write non-con scenes I usually am not graphic with them, I deeply apologize if it was hard to read (it was hard to write). I'm probably 'taking it light' as some would say by not being graphic but there are some things I just can't push myself to do. It's either mentioned or heavily referenced.
> 
> PS: If you're a fan of the Walking Dead series have a look at my 'Immortals' fic   
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/5187248  
> /shamelessly advertising I suppose ha/


	12. Return of A Nightmare

NEXT DAY

After the bombing of Tokyo, the POW’s were soon sent to another camp quickly the next morning. It was bitterly cold despite the sun being out, the harsh wind slapping at their faces. It felt as if it were hard to breath as they marched up the snowy and ice covered slopes, Louie and Lucas having to help a wounded Fitzgerald keep himself balanced.

The temperature seemed to drop each step the captives took. Lucas wouldn’t be shocked if he had frost bite on his hands and feet seeing as he was beginning to develop some on his face. He and Louie stared in awe as they marched up the stairway cut into the drifts. How long had it been anyway?

Blisters upon blisters began to form as they walk further ahead. Teeth chattering. Huddled together at the entrance of the prison compound. They were ordered to look up at the officer’s cabin.

Louie’s knees actually buckled forward resulting in Tinker having to catch him. Lucas nearly doubles over feeling as if he were to vomit.

“No…” He whispered and that was the only word he repeated to himself.

A cold chill coursed down his spine not having to look up to see whom it was greeting them. “I am Sargent Watanabe. You are enemies of Japan and you will be treated accordingly.” He repeated such as from when he first met them. Nothing further to add, the Sargent moves his gloved hand to his bamboo cane. Closer towards a disbelieved Louie. “Why don’t you look me in the eye?” He asked mockingly soon punching him in the eye.

**~///////~**

Louie and Lucas sit huddled together in their new barracks. These conditions were even worse than the ones at Omori if that were possible. Two mice ran across Lucas’s feet causing him to gasp, groaning and resting his head against Louie’s shoulder.

“Well. It was nice knowing you Lou…”

Louie sighed, scooting closer to him trying not to cringe at how ‘bony’ Lucas’s shoulders felt. “We’re gonna make it. You hear me?” He whispered softly. Stroking the back of his chilled hand to give Lucas extra needed warmth. “We ALL will. I told you before that I’m not going to let you die…”

And he’ll make damn well sure that bastard will never think of touching Lucas again or hurt him. Louie would take it all just for Lucas to keep him safe.

**~/////~**

 

The days seemed to have gone by in a blur. Louie and Lucas worked tirelessly with the others. Demetri however was in horrid shape. So skinny you could see his ribs…he looked like a living skeleton with the lack of food Watanabe gave him.

Pence was especially deeply troubled. Lucas could see it in his eyes that he was afraid, not sure what he’d do if something happened to Demetri as they talked quietly one night.

“I know Dem’s going to die soon.” Pence had whispered.

Lucas shook his head, giving his friend a firm squeeze on the shoulder. He couldn’t lie to him, it was clearly obvious Demetri didn’t look like he’d last long but he didn’t have the heart to tell Pence that. “No. You can’t bring yourself to think that Pence…I’m sure he’ll-.”

He paused when the other chuckled softly. Wringing his hands together. “You don’t have to lie, Lucas. I’ve…I’ve been bracing myself for it,” he began. Taking a shuddering breath. “We’ve been together for at least a year or so. First met at a bar…he was drunk off of his ass and I was the ‘unfortunate’ one who had to carry him out.” Lucas could see the fondness in Pence’s eyes. The longing desire. The very same look he and Mac had when they first met in person after months of writing letters back and forth.

“You like Louie. Don’t you?”

The question was sudden catching Lucas greatly off guard. A red hue crossing his face. “N-No,” he muttered. “Not…Not in the way you think. Does everyone think we’re-?”

Pence’s lips curve into that of a smile. “Well yeah. I think he likes you to. Bets were even going around if you’d end up together-Demetri’s idea of course.”

“I don’t believe that’s possible,” Lucas muttered. “I saw the way he looked at this one girl when we were in high school…”

“You should see the way he looks at you.”

Lucas pursed his lips. Trying to avert the question elsewhere. Louie liked girls. There was no way he’d look at Lucas the way he looked at them-even if he did Lucas was still deeply pining over Mac’s death. It was no denying Lucas felt something towards Louie but he had to keep those feelings dormant.

Fitzgerald had come in shortly after looking at Pence with a solemn expression shaking his head.

Pence merely nodded.

Demetri was dead.

Lucas knew what Pence was feeling all too well as he listened to his friend sob softly, pulling him in a one armed embrace. What could he possibly say? _Hey Pence ‘ol buddy. So sorry about your loss…part of life m’fraid, chin up. If I can get through it you can to_ no that’d be a terrible thing to say.

When Louie enters the barrack soon after-exhausted and tired Lucas tries to avert his gaze elsewhere. _Don’t fall for him. You still love Mac remember. Don’t. Fall for your best friend._

**~//////~**

Lucas worked tirelessly alongside Louie and the other officers. One Japanese officer yelled and belittled Lucas so much he shoveled coal at a frantic pace to the point Louie had to tell him to slow it down.

“Hey calm down,” Louie whispered. “Don’t rush or you’ll screw it up.” His face was so black from the coal that it reminded Lucas of the ‘Tar-Baby’ story he used to read as a child. The only thing that looked remotely visible were Louie’s eyes.

Lucas merely nodded slowly. “R-Right. Sorry. Just a little shaken up I gu-.”

“KEIREI!”

Almost immediately they all stood at attention when a guard barked out ‘Salute’. Watanabe marched toward the POW’s glaring dangerously at each and every men present. Something had clearly happened and someone was going to receive a terrible punishment.

“Fish has been stolen,” he drawled out. Marching slowly down the row of bony, almost charcoal black men. “Quite a large amount…if you speak up no punishment will be given. Who. Stole. It?”

Lucas looked on his right seeing one man look as if he were to wet himself on the spot. Squeezing his eyes shut. Mouthing a prayer. The other two beside him looked no better.

Not wanting to see those men hurt, Lucas bravely took a step forward. “It was me,” he spoke up. Glancing at the other men whom looked at him with wide, shocked eyes. “I stole the fish sir. If there’s anyone to punish…It’s me.”

A shudder ran up his spine as Watanabe’s lips turned into a sickening smirk that would forever haunt Lucas’s dreams. His eyes danced mischievously as he barked out at another soldier to tie his hands behind his back. Soon, Lucas found Watanabe’s bamboo cane under his chin.

“Thievery is NOT acceptable,” Watanabe began with glee. “All other prisoners are to-.”

“WAIT.”

Startled by Louie’s outburst, all eyes were now on the Italian man. His ocean blue eyes seething with boldness as he began speaking with a clenched fist. As stated before-he would take it all for Lucas.

“It was me. _I_ was the one who stole the fish sir, not Lucas. I talked him into it and he went along with it…like he usually does.”

 _Oh Louie_ Lucas thought, almost smiling at the last of his sentence.

“Ah seriously Zamp?” Frank spoke up next. A faint grin could be seen on his face. “It was me who talked you goons into it remember? I’m the one who should-.”

“ENOUGH!”

They all jumped at the sudden holler of Watanabe. The sergeant gripping his cane so tight his knuckles were white.

“All of you,” he hissed nodding to the three men. “You three, will receive punishment. Two hundred punches. From every other prisoner.”

And so it began.

The prisoners stood in separate long rows. Lucas, Louie and Frank with their hands tied behind their backs. Eyes closed. Bracing themselves for the pain, having to actually coax many prisoners into hitting them due to the fact if they did not then they would receive a beating.

A moment that would forever haunt all of them until the day they died. The Bird barking out _“Next, Next, Next, Next!!”_ over and over like a mantra in their minds.

Lucas actually had to be held up by several guards as did Louie and Frank. His lip busted and bloodied as he urged Pence to hit him in a slurred speech. “Pence c’mon man,” he choked out. “Just think of me as them…for what they did to Demetri.” Yes he dared to mention Demetri. That was enough to send Pence into a fury, not before muttering a sincere apology striking Lucas hard in his already broken nose.

His vision became blurred as the last prisoner came forward. His fist raised.

Then all had gone dark.

 


	13. Euphoria

**Twelve**

His head spun around. Groaning as his eyes flickered open hearing a soft murmur of voices around him.

“Is he waking up?”

“I think so.”

“Hey give him some room will ya?”

“What happened?” Lucas spoke in a slurred speech.

“Well..You got punched two-hundred times and you passed out after.”

Tinker.

He gave a mutter of thanks as Frank handed him a cup of tea with sugar in it taking small sips. The opera singer’s face still badly bruised as was Louie’s feeling Louie wipe some blood from his face. “My face isn’t broken is it?” He tried to joke earning a chuckle from his companions.

“Fortunately no. Need any help standing up.”

Lucas shook his head. “I think I-.” The minute he tried to stand up, he all but collapsed having the nearby Louie to catch him before he hit the floor. Realizing that it was morning he rubbed his eyes. “I slept all night?”

The men all glance at one another while Fitzgerald clears his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. “Actually…It’s more like two days.”

 _Two days?!_ Oh God. Dear Lord. What of Watanabe? He was surely going to receive a massive punishment for this. Louie could sense that his friend was panicked, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

“Hey calm down,” Louie began. “Watanabe’s not going to hurt you….a Japanese doctor actually gave him a pretty damn good scolding for not letting us…yeah alright I’ll tell him. Just give me a minute.” He hissed to a younger soldier.

Lucas blinked in confusion. “What’s going on?”

Louie sighed heavily now looking deflated. His eyes blank as he tells him the dreaded news. “Roosevelt. He’s…dead. Watanabe just gave us the announcement yesterday.”

No. No, no, no, no. He couldn’t believe it. Their president. Their savior. Their only hope of rescue. The man he had held so much respect for, they all had respect for was dead? “Then…We’re trapped here,” he whispered. “We’re never going to leave. The Japanese…Have won.”

None of them argued against the thought.

For the rest of the day they all worked in silence. Not a word spoken. Seeming to have accepted their fate.

**~//////~**

Sweat dripped down their faces. Drenching their hair as they walk down a ramp. The basket felt ten times heavier than usual. Louie could not stand it for one more minute. He had to take it off, let his muscles relax just for once.

The huge weight was then gone from his shoulders.

Unfortunately his little minute of Heaven turned into that of Hell shortly when a guard spotted him, dragging him by the elbow. Louie stumbled forward noting the thick, heavy beam laying on the ground and an ever so cocky Watanabe looking with a pointed face at him.

“Pick it up.” He demanded.

Stopping their work only for a moment, Lucas, Fitzgerald, Frank, Pence and even the guards watched as Louie manages to pick the beam up in his arms.

The Bird calls one of the guards over, speaking in English.

“If he drops it…shoot him.”

Lucas swallowed with great heaviness. Why didn’t Louie just cave in for once? Louie gazed at the Bird with a look of unrelenting hatred. He had to hold that beam up no matter what.

Minute by minute his arms felt weak. He actually stumbles over yet he does not fall nor drop the beam.

The heat of the sun nor the ache in his muscles did not seem to affect Louie at all.

Five minutes soon became ten. Less and less blood was reaching to his head. Lucas spoke aloud, not caring if a guard heard him. “Come on Zamp…You got this.” His mind flashed back to the days where he’d watch Louie race on their school track with Lucas watching cheering Louie on. Sometimes running beside, him.

“Don’t look at me.” Watanabe speaks.

Upon lifting his gaze, he can see that Louie is in fact looking at him. Staring him right in the eyes as if saying _you aren’t breaking me. You can NEVER break me…_ and that sets Watanabe off.

He charges. Kicking. Screaming. Punching Louie.

“Don’t…! Look…! At me!” Watanabe shouted in between kicks. Tears streaming down his face and for once, Lucas swears to his dying day that those tears were tears of true regret. A familiar wetness soon rolls down Lucas’s own face, feeling Pence slip his hand comfortingly in his.

Later on that night after tending to Louie’s wounds, Lucas silently watches Watanabe leave Naoetsu camp. They would not hear from him for two years.

**~//////~**

The POW’s listen to Commander Fitzgerald as he translates into English from another Japanese soldier that the war has finally reached ceaseation. In honor, of this ‘great day’ they were allowed to bathe in the Hokouro River.

This was it. They were dead.

As they wade into the water guards can be seen all around. Louie and Lucas grip their hands tight.

“See you in the Afterlife, Luke.” Louie whispered. “…I love you.”

“…I love you to Zamp.”

Lucas wasn’t sure if he said it in the heat of the moment. Because of the rising tension but he said it regardless. Squeezing their eyes shut tight. Waiting for a bullet to pierce their heart or head. But none of it happened. Instead all they heard was..cheering? What the hell? No wails of horror. Instead…he feels the shadow of a plane flying above them.

An AMERICAN plane.

Saved. They were found. They were finally found. “The war is over!!” Pence shouted in joy. Tears rolling down his face yet Lucas did not know if they were tears of relief or sadness of the fact Demetri was not here to celebrate with them all. He in all honesty felt the same for Mac.

_Mac…dear sweet Mac. I hope you’re watching from Heaven…we’ve won. No more pain. No more suffering. We’re free men. I wish you were here to see this though. I-It’s such a wonderful, wonderful feeling_

Supplies are soon dropped onto the prison camp grounds. Food. Real food. American cigarettes. Warm drinks. It all seemed so unreal. Like a dream within a dream. Smiling faintly at the sight of so many of his comrades celebrating, sharing packages he can’t help but notice Louie walk weakly up to Watanabe’s office.

Eventually, he enters the room where their tormenter once resided. Sliding down beside a battered and weary Louie against the wall. “…He already left.” He muttered. “Saw him leave last night.”

They had no knowledge of what his personal life was like, yet, Lucas wondered if perhaps all Watanabe wanted was companionship as cliché as he thought that sounded. His anger towards the Bird eventually subsided. And he had a feeling Louie’s would to.

“Did we mean that by the way?” Louie whispered out loud, glancing slowly at Lucas. “That…Well, you know. What we-?”

“Saying ‘I love you’ you mean?” Lucas spoke. A red hue dancing across his face.

Louie found himself inches to Lucas’s face. They both could feel what was coming making no attempts to stop it. Louie brushed his lips against Lucas’s softly. Then he gave in to everything that he’d been holding in for so long. He placed both hands on either side of Lucas’s face kissing him gently yet with such a passion.

They slowly pull away soon after, sharing a few brief kisses laughing softly. “….I mean it, Lucas,” Louie began. “I love you. And I think I always had.”

“You mean so much to me Lou,” Lucas whispered back. Intertwining his hand with his. “I love you as well.”

They sat in silence soon after in the corporal’s office before finally re-joining their friends. Preparing the trip back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last and final chapter of TOW will be up next Saturday <3 Quite an emotional story I'm not going to lie but it was worth writing as all my works are.


	14. Finale

The skies were a crystal clear ocean blue. Not a cloud in sight, the sun shining glowing bright spreading its warmth. Boots crunched along the gravel as Louie Zamperini and Lucas Shaw, trapped on a raft out in the ocean for forty-seven days and prisoners of war for at least two years arrived at the Torrance airport.

Hands laced together as Lucas squinted his eyes from the bright sunlight, grinning like a fool seeing the many citizens of their hometown greeting them with claps, cheers and whistles. Some even waving banners of ‘Welcome home soldiers!’.

Phil was reunited with his family before they but they made a promise to see one another as soon as they were settled in.

“Louie! Lucas!”

Looking out in the crowd, Louie smiled wide seeing Pete push himself through the crowd tackling them both in a hug. “My God,” Pete said with a laugh ruffling Lucas’s hair. “Look at you two.”

“It’s good to see you again Pete.” Lucas chuckled.

It was no surprise that his mother was not present. But he swore that he saw his father in the crowd, an aging man in military uniform with a wide grin on his face before vanishing into the air. Mrs. Zamperini kisses both sides of Lucas’s face with tears of utmost relief and happiness running down her face.

Mr. Zamperini places a firm, gentle hand on Louie’s shoulder. Tears of his own threatening to fall.

“Welcome home…my sons.”

Lucas pulled the man in an embrace whispering a shaken ‘thank you’ in Mr. Zamperini’s ear trying his hardest not to cry.

He’s startled however when Louie takes his hand in his. A mischevious grin of sorts that only a Zamperini could have on his face. “Uh….mother, father lovely to see you all but Lucas and I have some ‘matters’ to attend.”

“Louie what’re you-?” Lucas began. His sisters Sylvia and Virginia grin at one another trying not to giggle, even Bella seemed to have a little inkling as to what Louie meant. Watching as the man formerly known as the ‘Little Devil of Torrance’ ran with a laughing Lucas through the crowd demanding Louie tell him where he was taking him.

“I’m taking you where no one can disturb us,” Louie grinned. “Just you and me for now Shaw.”

“You really are something aren’t you Zamp?” Lucas chuckled.

Lucas had felt something he had not felt in a long time.

Peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to update Saturday...but I couldn't resist updating today heh. Thank you much to those who subscribed, commented, bookmarked etc! I'm so glad this story has received such an audience


End file.
